Bow To Lesser Gods, the Ends Justify the Means

5 of McConnell’s lessons for the “Don’t do as I say do as I do” attitude Democrats need to learn

The clock is ticking for the Democrats. This is no time to rest and take it slow, especially with the 2022 midterm elections so close and the balance on both chambers at play.

If they want to keep the majority, they must work fast to implement all of Biden’s reforms.

First, they must learn some of Mitch McConnell’s tricks instead of playing the nice guy card.

Most of his political career has been to promote himself and keep the power, not about how many bills he passed.

“The 116th U.S. Congress — featuring a Republican-led Senate and a Democratic-held House of Representatives — was the least productive in at least half a century, according to GovTrack data cited by S&P Global Market Intelligence.” (Fortune, Politics U. S. December 10, 2020)

Only 1 percent of nearly 15,000 of the bills presented during his tenure were legislated. One year ago, he declared during a television interview, “395 bills sitting in the Senate are not going to be passed,” according to Newsweek, earning him the name of ‘Grim Reaper’ and his time as majority leader as McConnell’s ‘Legislative Graveyard.’

Here are 5 lessons that the Democrats should learn from the Grim Reaper:

“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?“ — Matthew 7:3

Let’s start with his willingness to acquire power and keep it, distracting everyone from his actions and mistakes by blaming others — the Republicans, the media, Congress, the liberals, or the socialists, you name it.

He is willing to call any Democrat’s actions divisive, no matter how Republicans used every technique available to divide the country for the last four years.

The GOP has been using Whataboutism to answer a criticism or difficult question and attack someone with a similar criticism to others, typically starting with the words “What about?”:

The riot of the Capitol was wrong, but what about all BLM protests?

Trump’s response to Charlottesville events, answering what about the fact that the left came charging with swinging clubs in hand?

On the allegations of Trump’s collusion with the Russians, they would answer: what about the Democrats’ possible ties to Moscow?

What about Benghazi?

What about Hillary’s lost emails?

McConnell’s lesson number one: Don’t mind the log in your eye; focus on the speck in your enemy’s eye.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” — Winston Churchill

Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s advised GOP’s Congress members, “If you’re not focused on what you’re doing and what the Democrats are doing wrong, and you’re focused on talking about one another, I’m not putting up with that anymore. But if you continue to do that, there won’t be a place for you. I want to be very clear to each and every one of you. … It is not a way we’re going to win the majority.”

After the January 6th events, McConnell condemned the action taken by Trump followers and blamed the ex-President for provoking the insurrection. He even supported Republican Senator Rand Paul’s motion objecting to the trial on the grounds that the constitution does not provide for the impeachment of former presidents.

After many Senate members and the GOP have criticized him, he is trying to reunite the party and make a solid front against the Democrats.

He understands that too much is at stake and plans to be in power after the midterm elections.

Instead of arguing if Biden’s policies are not too progressive or that Chuck Schumer is too soft against the Republicans. Democrats must unite and work together to keep the power and increase the number of seats in both chambers.

McConnell’s lesson number two: Don’t fight among the people on your side of the aisle. Unite and fight together to stop the other side.

“Pontius Pilate! God will not let you wash your hands of this!” — Arthur Miller, The Crucible

In the 2022 Senate elections, there are 34 seats in play, including three Republican senators who have already announced their intentions to retire. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio. And even though this could be good for the Democrats since it is easier to win over a new candidate than an incumbent, they have to consider that midterms tend to be tough for Senate candidates of the party controlling the White House.

Republicans are already making plans to support their candidates, but at least three Trump family members are either considering running for office or being urged to do so. “Lara Trump, the wife of the president’s son Eric, is actively contemplating a run for the Senate in North Carolina. Don Jr. is eyeing a future in politics, and Ivanka is rumored to be thinking about launching a primary to challenge Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida.”

With new Republican groups like “The Lincoln Project,” “Republican Accountability Project,” and “Republican Voters Against Trump,” placing ads and billboards against Sen. Cruz, Sen. Hawley, Rep. Jordan, Rep. Green, and even House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, urging them to resign.

In Congress, things are just as hot with Louisiana’s 2nd and 5th Congressional Districts up for grab in March 2021.

The shift in power at the House of Representatives can get bloody with 435 House seats up for election on November 2022. It is starting to look like a “FortNite” video challenge, making it the ultimate survival game.

And with just one vote needed to win or lose the majority at the Senate, and seven votes to flip Congress, McConnell quietly looks at how other Republicans fight against each other. Like a Roman Emperor watching the gladiators, he checks the waters and sees where the flow might take him.

McConnell’s lesson number three: Choose your battles wisely, and let others fight them for you.

“The ends justify the means.” — Niccolò Machiavelli

At the beginning of the Trump presidency, Republicans had control of both Houses. With Rep. Paul Ryan as speaker and McConnell in charge of the Senate.

The Constitution of the United States divides the federal government into three branches to make sure no individual or group will have too much power:

• Legislative — Makes laws (Congress, comprised of the House of Representatives and Senate)
• Executive — Carries out laws (president, vice president, Cabinet, most federal agencies)
• Judicial — Evaluates laws (Supreme Court and other courts)

McConnell and his minions decided that three is always better than two. And now that they had control over the Legislative and the Executive branches, they should control the Judicial.

If you think for a moment he was only aiming for the Supreme Court, you would be wrong. He understood that to fill any possible seat in the SCOTUS. First, he needed candidates. But where could he find them?

So, he made his mission to pack every available circuit-court vacancy. Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 6/24/2020: “Once we confirm Judge Wilson today, this Senate will have confirmed 200 of President Trump’s nominees to lifetime appointments on the federal bench. And following number 200, when we depart this chamber today, there will not be a single circuit-court vacancy anywhere in the nation for the first time in at least 40 years. As I’ve said many times, our work with the administration to renew our federal courts is not a partisan or political victory. It is a victory for the rule of law and for the Constitution itself. If judges applying the law and the Constitution as they’re written strikes any of our colleagues as a threat to their political agenda, then the problem, I would argue, is with their agenda.”

McConnell blocked President Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court, arguing that it should be up to the next president to decide whom to nominate for the SCOTUS since the 2020 elections were only 8 months away.

Just as soon as Trump’s presidency started, he confirmed Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice, to replace Justice Scalia. After Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018, he confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Then the Republican senators who said they were not going to confirm any Justice to the SCOTUS in 2020 suddenly suffered memory loss. Just one month after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed on October 26.

Now that the Supreme Court is full and most conservative justices preside, what should the Democrats do?

The number of Justices for the court has varied during the years:

• In the Judiciary Act of 1789, the number of judges was set at six.
• In 1807, Congress increased the number to seven.
• In 1837, the number was bumped up to nine.
• In 1863, it rose to 10.
• In 1866, Congress shrank the number of justices back down to seven.
• And in 1869, Congress raised the number of justices to nine, where it stands now.

But the number is not fixed, so any time it can be altered. President Biden will start a commission to reform the Supreme Court. Adding more seats as liberals call for and setting a balance on the conservative SCOTUS.

What should the Democrats do?

August 6 McConnell said in a speech to supporters in Kentucky: “One of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye, and I said, ‘Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy.’”

Speaking at a Paducah Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Kentucky, McConnell was asked by an attendee, “Should a Supreme Court justice die next year, what will your position be on filling that spot? The leader took a long sip of what appeared to be iced tea before announcing with a smile, “Oh, we’d fill it,”

In other words, Democrats have to do anything on their hands to keep the majority and control of the three branches of power.

McConnell’s lesson number four: Do whatever you need to win.

“Bow to lesser gods.” — Lesser Gods, Song by Demon Hunter

McConnell will do whatever he needs to do to win and stay in power, as I wrote before. This includes bowing to the monster he created, even after it almost killed him, and many other senators.

He has allowed Trump to go unleashed in the past years, destroying everything he touches, colluding, lying, and even breaking the GOP into pieces. After the Republicans lost the Congress, the Senate, and the White House, he has to stay low and hide behind other Republicans to win some of the MAGA follower’s support.

On January 6th, after the Senate return to the floor, he condemned the riot and Trump’s words, trying to make him accountable, but now he is openly against the impeachment.

The same goes for all the QAnon and White Supremacy supporters that have filled the Republican Party. As a conservative, he opposes all the extremist’s agenda. Still, he is willing to accept all the help they provide, even if it means trading Republican values for votes or money.

I hope that Democrats learn from his mistakes and stay in power without losing their soul.

“Here we stand To turn and face the odds Sacrifice yourself Or bow to lesser gods”

Lesser Gods — Song by Demon Hunter

McConnell’s lesson number five: Winners make policy, and the losers go home.

“Truthful words stand the test of time, but lies are soon exposed.” — Proverbs 12:19

In the end, history will judge him. Sen. Mitch McConnell will be remembered either as one of the most influential Republicans in time or as the evil character who ended the Party.

As a great strategist or as a coward who created the most dangerous monster in politics (Trumpism) and succumbed under its claws.

An as the man who made the Republican Party great again or the person who broke the GOP and helped create the Patriotic Party, and killed the Party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“You can have results or excuses NOT BOTH”: — Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sources

• NPR.org
• AP.com
• Ballotpedia.com
• CBS News
• CNN
• Fortune
• History.com
• Lexington Herald
• NewsObserver.com
• Newsweek.com
• Politico.com
• Republicanleader.senate.gov
• USA.gov